Every little list tells a story

Published 4:00 am, Friday, July 10, 2009

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Mark Scheuer says there's a story to be told in Sunday's New York Times Business best-seller list: No. 1: "Outliers," "how luck and opportunity, in addition to talent, help people succeed"; No. 2: "How the Mighty Fall," "how companies fall in stages"; No 3: "Shop Class as Soulcraft, "the challenges and satisfactions of manual work."

On a Guerrero Street gate, Stephen Vincentsaw this gentle sign on the iron gate outside a multiple-unit apartment house (the slash marks indicate where the words were broken, also their poetry):

Stonewall history, Chapter XXX: Ed Moose, who with his wife, Mary Etta,once lived next door to the Greenwich Village bar, says he used to notice a lot of big black limos outside. There were also lots of cops, and when he asked them what was up, they told him it was a "Mafia joint." It was a Mafia club before it was a gay club, says Moose, and it was gay Mafiosi who served as the bridge between those two groups.

-- As to Alaskans wanting Tina Feyto serve out the rest of Sarah Palin's term, Janice Hough says "She looks the same, sounds more articulate and has been spending about the same amount of time recently in Alaska."

-- When guests at the Roxie Theater were welcomed to "the world's first Atheist Film Festival," says Henry Cohen, someone yelled out, "God bless you." "Thank you," said the speaker.

Artist Justin BUAunveils "The King of Pop," his Michael Jacksontribute painting, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Moe's Books in Berkeley. The event is in conjunction with the publication of BUA's book, "The Beat of Urban Art" (BUA, get it?), but the Jackson work is new.

"I just did the thing. ... I started the day he died and completed two days after he died," said BUA, who will be there along with DJ CJ Flash spinning Jackson tunes.

How did he come to Moe's? "A lot of bookstores wanted to do something, but Moe's is cool, the only independent bookstore to survive" (well, sort of). "I like the tenacity, the audacity of them. We're going to celebrate Michael, have a DJ, book signing, my own version of a memorial. ... I am the beat of urban art."

P.S.: A spy on an e-mail query list for journalists, received one dated July 8, from a "major national daily" seeking "people whose daily lives have been seriously impacted by the death of Michael Jackson. Have you requested time off work to grieve? Have you sought out a support group or therapy to help cope with his passing? Not interested in people who are merely saddened by his death, but rather deeply impacted by it."

Scram if you're sad; stick around if you're destroyed. Does the media have a heart?

Ted Hauter was listening when his pal and the pal's young daughter were discussing the roots of Independence Day. "From whom did we declare independence?" the father asked the girl.

"Britney," she declared.

Hurry, if you act now, you can get your craniotomy here: Bob Hirshfeld was taken by the compelling Alameda magazine ad for Eden Medical Center, which offers "Superior technology. Superior outcomes."

The first paragraph says, "A recent report by the State of California named Eden Medical Center as having a 'Better Than Average' survival rate for patients who undergo craniotomies. The statewide average was 6.7%, while the rate at Eden was measured at 0.7%."

The sister city contingent had a great time in Krakow last week, formally cementing the relationship between San Francisco and that Polish city, but Matthew Goudeautells me that at the last minute, a long budget committee meeting made Bevan Duftymiss his plane, and he didn't go. Goudeau ate plenty of pierogis (he's especially fond of onion and dill) and suggests a sister city exchange of potstickers and pierogi.

Public Eavesdropping

"That's old-school rap, honey."

Father to daughter of 4 or so, at Cole's Coffee in Berkeley as a car went by playing loud rap music, overheard by Maggi Brown